[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Announced in 1978, it was trialled from 1979 to 1981, with a second larger trial held from 1982 to 1983.

[8][9] Captain differed from comparable European videotex systems by not being based on the transmission of alphanumeric characters.

Instead pages were therefore substantially sent to the end user as pre-rendered images, using coding strategies similar to facsimile machines.

[1] By December 1985, Captain had 650 information providers, and the next year was rolled out to 245 cities.

Like other videotex systems worldwide (with the exception of the French Minitel), it never broke through to achieve mass-market usage.